A Christian Perspective on Parenting a Gay Child
For a decade now, Christian parents have been asking my wife and me for help in parenting their gay kids. As a Christian dad of a gay son, I wish there had been someone to talk me through the issues raised by my son’s disclosure of his sexuality. But the evangelical church has until […]
Why Didn’t Jesus Mention Homosexuality?
Jesus never explicitly mentioned homosexuality in the four gospels of the New Testament. He talked about fornication, adultery, lust, marriage, divorce, and other aspects of sexuality. But he never mentioned same-sex sexual relations. Some say Jesus would have affirmed same-sex sexual relations. Since he didn’t mention them, they reason, and since Jesus was focused […]
Survey: Parents of LGBT+ Loved Ones
Our friends and partner orgnization, Lead Them Home (LTH), is in the process of expanding their top-selling resource, Guiding Families of LGBT+ Loved Ones. In doing so, they want parents to hear directly from other parents in learning how to best engage, relate to, care for, and foster faith identity in LGBT+ loved ones. Bill Henson, the founder and president […]
10 Things I Wish All Christian Leaders Knew About Gay Teens in their Church
Those gay teens in your church? I was one of them. I didn’t really know it yet—I didn’t identify as gay—but I was attracted to women. I felt an increasing intrigue towards them, while boys were… kind of gross. I had five brothers (and seven sisters), so I grew up fighting with the boys, […]
You Don’t Need to Pray that God Makes Me Straight
The following blog is written by Dr. Greg Coles. Greg is part of The Center’s collaboration team and has a Ph.D. in English from Penn State. He’s also the author of the recently released: Single, Gay, Christian. It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a good conservative Christian boy who realizes he’s gay will spend […]
All But Invisible
The following blog is written by Dr. Nate Collins. Nate is part of The Center’s collaboration team and has recently completed his Ph.D. in New Testament from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. In this post, Nate talks about some themes expressed in his book All But Invisbile, which releases today! Conservative evangelical conversations about Christianity and […]
Gay Celibacy is Weird, and That’s a Good Thing
*The following post is written by Greg Coles. Greg is a Ph.D. student at Penn State and is part of the collaborative team for The Center. Greg is also the author of the recently released book Single, Gay, Christian, which is published by InterVarsity Press. I’ve always been bad at blending in. I grew up in […]
I Need to Be Known
The following blog is written by Greg Coles. Greg is a Ph.D. candidate at Penn State and is part of The Center’s collaboration team. My favorite online dictionary has a search bar bearing the default phrase, “I’m searching for…” So when I went online a few days ago to look up the etymology of the […]
Is There Really Such Thing as a “Biblical Marriage?”
In my previous blog, I argued that the debate about same-sex marriage is not a secondary issue. To be clear, I didn’t thereby say that it’s necessarily a “gospel issue” (the phrase can be sloppy) or even a “primary issue,” since I don’t think primary and secondary categories are very helpful and I would rather […]
The Debate about Same-Sex Marriage is Not a Secondary Issue
That may sound like a bold claim, and maybe it is, but it’s important that you read the previous post before you read this one. In short, there are many methodological questions that often go unanswered when Christians are quick to say that same-sex marriage is or isn’t a primary theological (or gospel, or essential, […]